The Nonprofit Business Model

As I was reading a book of my choice for class (Chad Post's The Three Percent Problem), I came across an indie bookselling business model I have not yet explored: independent bookstores as nonprofits. In the face of numerous bookstore closures, some stores are declaring 501(c)(3) status. In this way, passionate booksellers can continue to share their love of books, but exist as a tax exempt organization. At the heart of successful nonprofit bookstores, is a solid, well articulated mission (i.e., not simply to "stay in business"). I did some browsing and came across several well established nonprofit book shops and have copied their "missions" below.

Woodland Pattern Book Center (pictured here in an image from Express Milwaukee) is one example of a wildly successful bookstore operating as nonprofit. The website declares their mission clearly and concisely:

Our goals are to promote a lifetime practice of reading and writing, to provide a forum and resource center for writers/artists in our region, and to increase and diversify the audience for contemporary literature through innovative approaches to multi-arts programming.

Locally (at least for me!), Books for America in DuPont Circle sells a fraction of the books it receives as donations as a fundraising mechanism. The organization describes their mission as follows:

We build and improve libraries in Washington, DC area schools, shelters, prisons and more; we support reading programs; and we provide children in the Nation's Capital with their first take-home books!

I plan to check out their shop and provide a review within the next several weeks.